Star Wars star Mark Hamill has no Yoda-like words of wisdom for the younger generation of creators now taking ownership of the sci-fi franchise.
The Luke Skywalker actor was asked recently about the upcoming new sequel Star Wars: Starfighter and its lead actor Ryan Gosling, and came up empty in the advice department (via PEOPLE):
No, none of those people need advice from me. They’re doing so well. I had my time. I’m going to ask for advice from them.
Hamill characterizes himself as a Gosling admirer, expressing particular appreciation for the Oscar nominee’s performance as Beavis of Beavis and Butt-head fame on a 2024 episode of SNL. The Long Walk actor’s latest torch-passing Star Wars comments come after remarks he made back in May in which he seemed to indicate that he had left the franchise far, far behind him (via ComicBook.com):
I am so grateful to George [Lucas] for letting me be a part of that back in the day, the humble days when George called Star Wars ‘the most expensive low-budget movie ever made. We never expected it to become a permanent franchise and a part of pop culture like that. But my deal is, I had my time. I’m appreciative of that, but I really think they should focus on the future and all the new characters.
Hamill later clarified those perhaps too-blunt remarks, indicating that he hasn’t retired from Star Wars so much as Star Wars seemingly has retired him (via TODAY):
I saw headlines: ‘Mark Hamill quit Star Wars.’ Well, let me say, they haven’t asked me. It’s not like they said, ‘Please come back.’ How much can you do with a Force Ghost? I’d like a movie set all in the Force Ghost realm. I could have conversations with Alec Guinness… From your lips to God’s ears.”
Luke Skywalker made his highly-anticipated return to the Star Wars franchise with a brief appearance in 2015’s The Force Awakens, and saw his role expanded in 2017’s The Last Jedi. Hamill’s participation in the sequel trilogy ended as Luke died at the end of that movie, and was briefly brought back in The Rise of Skywalker as a Force Ghost.
The physical character of Luke was later resurrected for the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, with the help of deepfake technology, with Hamill doing voice and performance-capture work, but this isn’t something the actor is keen to keep on doing, as he indicated back in 2023 (via Esquire):
“People say, ‘Oh, now you’re going to be able to do a whole series of Luke post-Return of the Jedi.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ First of all, they don’t need to tell those stories, but if they do, they could get an age-appropriate actor.”
Recasting Luke Skywalker is seemingly off-the-table after Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s 2022 remarks about the big mistake the company made in replacing Harrison Ford with Alden Ehrenreich for the box-office flop Solo: A Star Wars Story (via Vanity Fair). “There should be moments along the way when you learn things,” Kennedy said, adding, “Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.”
In addition to Gosling’s entirely new Starfighter character, the upcoming Star Wars slate will focus on the sequel trilogy’s Rey and The Mandalorian’s Din Djarin and Grogu. James Mangold is also developing a movie set 25,000 years before A New Hope, which will focus on the beginning of the Jedi.
Expanding beyond the timeline of earlier Star Wars movies is also on the mind of Starfighter director Shawn Levy, whose film will be set five years after the events of the sequel trilogy, and will exist as its own standalone adventure. “I don’t want to do a Star Wars movie that is redundant to others, nor am I interested in doing one that has to serve another movie,” Levy explained back in August 2024 (via Happy Sad Confused).
Levy delivers his unique take on Star Wars, with Gosling in the lead role, and no input from Luke Skywalker himself, when Starfighter releases May 28, 2027.
- Cast
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Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal
- TV Show(s)
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The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions
- Movie(s)
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Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
Star Wars is a multimedia franchise that started in 1977 by creator George Lucas. After the release of Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope (originally just titled Star Wars), the franchise quickly exploded, spawning multiple sequels, prequels, TV shows, video games, comics, and much more. After Disney acquired the rights to the franchise, they quickly expanded the universe on Disney+, starting with The Mandalorian.